ISLAMABAD - The Federal Board of Revenue on Thursday issued the tax directory of parliamentarians that contains income tax details of members of the Senate and national and provincial assemblies.

The government has issued the tax directory of the parliamentarians for the consecutive fourth year. After Sweden, Finland and Norway, Pakistan is the fourth country in the world to publish tax particulars of all its registered taxpayers. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar formally launched the tax directory at a ceremony held at the FBR headquarters.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid tax Rs 2.5 million during the year 2016 as compared to Rs 2.19 million last year, showing an increase of Rs 0.31 million. Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah paid tax Rs 124,215 during 2016 as compared to Rs 113,740 in 2015.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan paid Rs 159, 609 in 2016 as against Rs 76,244 in 2015 showing an increase of Rs 83,365. Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan and the prime minister’s son-in-law, Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar paid no tax during 2016.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani paid Rs 492, 201, leader of the house in the Senate, Raja Zafar-ul-Haq paid Rs 134,039, Leader of Opposition in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan paid Rs 13.85 million, Senator Talha Mahmood paid tax of Rs 32.5 million, Senator Rozi Khan Kakar paid Rs 49.92 million, Dr Farogh Naseem paid Rs 20.23 million tax, Senator Siraj-ul-Haq paid tax of Rs 34,941, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed paid Rs 137,271, Senator Rehman Malik paid Rs 19,076, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla paid Rs 1.35 million, Senator Sherry Rehman paid Rs 1.03 million and Senator Farhat Ullah Babar paid Rs 533,677 tax during the year 2016.

Federal ministers

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar paid a tax of Rs 4.6 million, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan paid Rs 1.19 million, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif paid Rs 831,986 and Rs 443,992 as members of associations of persons. Federal Defence Production Minister Rana Tanvir Hussain paid a tax of Rs 262,874, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal paid Rs 82,440, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi paid Rs 2.66 million and Rs 549,400 as members of associations of persons. Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali paid Rs 86,536. Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb paid a tax of Rs 50,181.

MNAs

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq paid Rs 104,853 million, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi Rs1.12 million, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman Rs 50,181, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed paid Rs 505,966, Dr Farooq Sattar of MQM Rs 39,758, Shah Mahmood Qureshi of PTI Rs 1.86 million, Dr Shireen Mazari of PTI Rs 1.34 million, Pervaiz Elahi of PML-Q Rs1.48 million, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of ANP Rs 34,941, MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif paid Rs 7.04 million and Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao paid Rs 1.8 million.

Similarly, PTI’s MNAs Asad Omar and Jahangir Khan Tareen paid Rs 6.37 million and Rs 53.7 million, respectively. PPP MNA Faryal Talpur paid Rs 1.9 million and Naveed Qamar paid Rs 50,121.

Chief Ministers

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid Rs 9.5 million and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah paid Rs 116,600 as income tax and Rs 5.09 million as members of associations of persons. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak paid Rs 813,869 and Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri paid Rs 1.41 million as income tax.

Addressing the ceremony, Dar said this year the tax directory contained tax details of 1,010 parliamentarians as against the last years’ tax details of 996 lawmakers from the upper/lower houses and the provincial assemblies. Tax collection had increased to Rs 3,360 billion by 73 percent during the last four years due to reforms in the taxation system, he added.

“After continued struggle of two years, Pakistan became the 104th member of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, by fulfilling the international set criteria and introducing the internal reforms,” Dar said, adding the multilateral convention on administrative assistance in tax matters was aimed at curbing growing tax evasion and encouraging the tax compliance culture across the board.

He further said Pakistan had signed a unilateral treaty with Switzerland to share the tax information in order to bring transparency and check tax evasion.